KEY POINTS
- Israel launched air strikes in southern Gaza despite US-brokered ceasefire.
- Netanyahu ordered the Rafah crossing closed “until further notice”.
- Gaza’s Health Ministry reported 68,159 deaths and over 170,000 wounded since Oct 2023.
- UN humanitarian chief warns that aid deliveries remain insufficient as the Rafah closure worsens the crisis.
GAZA CITY, Palestine: Israel carried out air strikes in southern Gaza on Sunday, accusing Hamas of targeting its soldiers, as tensions flared despite a fragile ceasefire. The Hamas armed wing denied any violation of the ceasefire and reaffirmed its commitment to the truce.
The Israeli military confirmed that its forces launched air raids in Rafah after Hamas fighters allegedly fired antitank missiles and small arms at Israeli troops positioned along the ceasefire lines.
“The army responded with air strikes after coming under fire,” the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said in a statement.
However, Hamas’s Qassam Brigades said it had “no knowledge of any clashes” in Rafah, adding that its communication with remaining units in the area had been cut off since Israel re-entered parts of southern Gaza in March.
Netanyahu orders Rafah closure
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced that the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt would remain closed “until further notice”.
The closure, it said, would remain in place until Hamas returned the remains of all dead hostages.
“The reopening of Rafah depends on Hamas fulfilling its obligations under the ceasefire agreement,” Netanyahu’s office said.
The decision follows the handover of 13 bodies by Hamas over the past week, 12 of whom were identified as Israeli hostages. The Israeli authorities said one of the bodies did not belong to a hostage.
Gaza death toll surpasses 68,000
Meanwhile, Gaza’s Health Ministry said 18 more bodies were brought to hospitals in the past 24 hours, bringing the total death toll since October 7, 2023, to 68,159, with 170,203 wounded. The figures, compiled by the health ministry, are widely regarded by the United Nations as credible estimates of civilian casualties.
The ministry also said Israel had released 150 Palestinian bodies so far, including 15 on Sunday. “Some of the bodies showed signs of torture, beatings, handcuffing, and blindfolding,” the statement said.
Families searching for missing relatives have been poring over photographs of the bodies, many of which were decomposed or unidentifiable. Only 25 of the 150 returned bodies have been identified.
US warns Hamas
The United States on Saturday said it had “credible reports” suggesting Hamas was allegedly planning an imminent attack against civilians in Gaza, which Washington warned would constitute “a grave violation” of the ceasefire.
“This planned attack against Palestinian civilians would undermine the significant progress achieved through mediation efforts,” the US State Department said.
Earlier, President Donald Trump warned in a post on Truth Social that “if Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the deal, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them”.
Hamas rejected the US claims as “false and baseless”, accusing Washington of “repeating the Israeli narrative”.
The Palestinian group said it remained committed to the truce and accused Israel of supporting armed groups inside Gaza.
UN official calls Gaza “a wasteland”
Tom Fletcher, the United Nations humanitarian chief, who visited Gaza City on Saturday, described the devastation as “beyond comprehension”.
“Nothing prepares you for Gaza,” Fletcher wrote in a diary published by The Observer. “The scale of destruction, the density of loss, the quiet resilience in people’s eyes.”
He said 950 aid trucks, including 11 carrying fuel and gas, entered Gaza on Thursday. Bakeries in Deir el-Balah were producing around 300,000 loaves of bread daily, he noted, but warned that “Gaza is a wasteland — what’s needed is not a trickle, but an avalanche of aid”.
Fletcher later posted footage from Khan Younis showing entire neighbourhoods reduced to rubble.
Driving on the road from Gaza City to Khan Younis yesterday. pic.twitter.com/gDGGIm5VM1
— Tom Fletcher (@UNReliefChief) October 19, 2025
Rafah closure deepens humanitarian crisis
The Rafah crossing — Gaza’s only gateway not controlled by Israel before the war — has remained closed since May, when Israeli forces seized the Gazan side.
The closure has blocked thousands of Palestinians from leaving for medical treatment or reuniting with family in Egypt.
The Palestinian Authority’s Interior Ministry in Ramallah announced new procedures for travellers, saying those wishing to exit Gaza would receive temporary documents issued by embassy staff in Cairo.
With humanitarian needs soaring and the truce increasingly fragile, aid agencies warn that the latest escalation could unravel months of mediation led by the United States, Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey.
As Fletcher put it: “We owe it to those who have endured so much to move beyond this endless cycle of cruelty, terror, and revenge.”
